


Be the Sky

by ReginaNocis



Series: Obscure Love [38]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, BAMF Darcy Lewis, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 23:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13669497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReginaNocis/pseuds/ReginaNocis
Summary: “Jane?” Pepper asked, brows wrinkling in confusion. “Do you mean Jane Foster? The little girl I used to babysit?”“She’s not little anymore. Well, I mean, she’s the shortest person I know, and she’s skinny as a twig, but she’s not a kid anymore. Janie is a real-life scientist. I was her intern for a couple years, until SHIELD made me go back to school and finish my degree,” Darcy told her. “I graduated with my political science degree, and she pulled some strings to get me a job.”“I have a hard time imagining little Jane all grown up. She always had such big dreams. I was only about six years older than her, but she was beyond anything I’d ever even thought about. I’m glad to know she’s doing what she loves,” Pepper said with a smile. “I’ll have to make time to see her.”





	Be the Sky

Pepper was counting the minutes until the board meeting was over. Tony was supposed to be here with her, but he was volatile on a good day, and board meetings were not good. She left him in his lab and came by herself, thinking it would be fast. How much could they have to discuss when they’d just met last week? It turned out they had quite a bit, most of it involving Tony’s recently revealed relationship with Steve Rogers. The board did not approve of their openly public relationship.

“Mr. Stark taking such a public stance in the moral debate of the LGBT community is not good for our business,” Noah Splints was saying. Pepper was doodling in the margins of her notes from previous meetings, bored out of her mind. No matter what the board decided, they couldn’t actually force Tony to do anything.

“Perhaps his support will buy us support from the masses,” Sarah Kinston suggested. Pepper knew there was a reason she liked that woman. “I see no reason to get involved in Mr. Stark’s personal affairs so long as he remains away from ours.”

“Mr. Stark has no interest in anyone’s private lives apart from his own,” Pepper assured her. “Just as he expects you to have no opinion on his. Mr. Rogers is his soulmate. That’s to be celebrated, not condemned.”

“Come now, Ms. Potts. How can we possibly know that he’s telling the truth?” Splints asked, smirking. Pepper lost her smile, feeling a rage she’d never felt before.

“I’ve seen the marks myself, Mr. Splints, not that it is any concern of yours. And that’s quite an accusation for a man barely keeping his foot in the door. I suggest you not comment on things you know nothing about,” she said quietly.

“And how can we know that you’re not lying to cover his ass?” Splints continued as if she’d never spoken. Pepper stood smoothly, waving away the new assistant that she hadn’t even had the time to meet yet. Splints seemed to finally realize he’d said the wrong thing. 

“See yourself out,” she told him angrily. “And don’t bother to come to the next board meeting, as you are no longer a part of the board. If we see or hear one peep of this in a tabloid or on the news, we will take you for everything you own. Good day, Noah.”

She wasn’t naïve enough to think that he wouldn’t sell his story to at least one reporter, and she fully expected a lawsuit by the end of the day, but she also knew that JARVIS recorded board meetings and was already taking care of making what she did perfectly legal. He’d also watch the tabloids and news stations for the story, so that she could take her own legal action when his greed won him over. Nobody got away with talking about Tony as poorly as that man had.

She didn’t even notice the board meeting ending, or the members leaving. She sat in her seat for almost an hour past when she could have left, fuming and making plans. This was another reason she’d left Tony in his lab that day. He would have handled that far worse than she had.

“Um, Ms. Potts?” her new assistant asked from the door, drawing her attention. “You have a meeting with the senator in half an hour, and I had lunch delivered so you could eat before he got here.”

“Thank you,” Pepper said quietly, gesturing for the girl to enter. “I feel like a horrible person. I don’t even know your name,” she admitted.

“I’m Darcy Lewis,” the girl told her. “And you’re my hero. When Jane said she had connections, I had no idea I’d end up here working for you. This is a dream come true!”

“Jane?” Pepper asked, brows wrinkling in confusion. “Do you mean Jane Foster? The little girl I used to babysit?”

“She’s not little anymore. Well, I mean, she’s the shortest person I know, and she’s skinny as a twig, but she’s not a kid anymore. Janie is a real-life scientist. I was her intern for a couple years, until SHIELD made me go back to school and finish my degree,” Darcy told her. “I graduated with my political science degree, and she pulled some strings to get me a job.”

“I have a hard time imagining little Jane all grown up. She always had such big dreams. I was only about six years older than her, but she was beyond anything I’d ever even thought about. I’m glad to know she’s doing what she loves,” Pepper said with a smile. “I’ll have to make time to see her.”

“She didn’t think you’d remember her,” Darcy admitted.

“Of course I do! She taught me how to read the stars,” Pepper shared. “We’d sit on her roof for hours, way past when we were supposed to be. I never forgot.”

“She tried teaching me, but I just don’t have the patience,” Darcy replied. “She talks about you at night sometimes, when she thinks I’m sleeping. She’s constantly wondering if you’re okay, and how you handle Stark.”

Pepper touched the band on her wrist, remembering the words written there. _“If you could be anything, anything at all, what would you be?”_ She remembered the day she met Jane, the question the little six-year-old had asked her as an icebreaker. Jane had been too young to understand what that conversation had meant, and she hadn’t gotten her words yet. By the time she did, she didn’t remember Pepper saying them. _“I would be the sky, because I could see everything and everyone at once.”_

Pepper had never gone back for her soulmate, even after she’d become CEO of the biggest company in the world. Her job involved too much travel, and Tony Stark came with too much danger. She’d tried to fall in love with Tony, because he was so easy to be around. They hadn’t lasted more than a few years, and she couldn’t begrudge him the happiness he’d found with Steve. Even now, talking to Darcy Lewis about her soulmate, she couldn’t bring herself to pick up a phone and call. She couldn’t drag her soulmate down with her.

“Patience is a virtue,” Pepper told her with a small smile. “But you won’t need it with this job. Everything moves very quickly around me. I don’t have time for slow or waiting.”

“I know, I’ve been looking at your schedule. Speaking of, you need to eat in five minutes or less so you can be where you need to be,” Darcy replied, handing her a bag of food from her favorite diner. “Phil told me what you like, hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Pepper assured her.

 

Even though Pepper had never gone looking for her soulmate again, she hadn’t lost her completely. She’d kept track of what Jane Foster had done with her life. She’d been there when she’d graduated, but she hadn’t approached her. She’d sent her an anonymous gift from the science department of Stark Industries, and she’d made sure every grant the woman applied for was approved, no matter where it was from.

She’d funded her soulmate for the entire time she’d been Tony’s assistant, and she was still doing it now that she was CEO. She’d just signed approval for a brand new grant she’d invented herself to go to Jane last week. Of course, she should have known that Darcy’s connection to Jane would make her curious.

“Ms. Potts, do you have a minute?” Darcy asked, leaning in the doorway. “I just have a couple of quick questions.”

“Sure, I could use a break,” Pepper agreed. “And please, I’ve asked you to call me Pepper. Ms. Potts is just too formal.”

“Right, sorry. I was just wondering about this file I found from last week. It had Jane’s name in the title, and I got curious. Sorry,” she said sheepishly. Pepper sighed, wishing it could have gone a little longer before she was discovered. She knew that money wouldn’t last long with how Jane wanted to use it.

“Sure, it’s fine. Close the door and we can talk,” Pepper agreed, closing out of the document she’d been working on. Her concentration was shot, anyways.

“Why’d you do it?” Darcy asked, dropping into the chair across from her. “And how often do you do that?”

“I did it because Jane is a good person, and a good scientist. She deserves it,” Pepper told her, the sincerity obvious in her voice. “And I’ve been making sure her grants get approved since she started in the field.”

“But why?” Darcy pushed. “I know she’s good, but everyone just thinks she’s crazy. Even after all the stuff with Thor, she rarely gets taken seriously.”

“You’ve met Tony,” Pepper reminded her. “He built himself a way to stay alive in a cave, using an old car battery. If he can do that, why on earth should I think that Jane is lying about the things she says are possible? I can’t pretend to understand half of her theories, but I can support them because I know her, and I know she wouldn’t just make things up.”

“You love her,” Darcy accused gleefully.

“I haven’t seen or spoken to her in years,” Pepper reminded her.

“But you still love her,” Darcy shot back.

“She’s my soulmate,” Pepper whispered, saying the words out loud for the first time in her life. “How could I not?”

“Oh, Pepper,” Darcy said quietly. The pity in her eyes was obvious.

“If that’s all, Ms. Lewis, I’m very busy,” Pepper said after a few seconds, drying her own eyes. “And I’ll ask you to keep what you’ve just learned a secret, even from Ms. Foster. It’s for me to take care of at a later date.”

“Of course,” Darcy snapped, suddenly angry. She slammed the door behind her. Pepper really hoped she wouldn’t have to find a new assistant, because she really did like Darcy Lewis.

 

Two days later, Darcy was knocking on her door to remind her about yet another board meeting. “They called an emergency meeting to discuss how best to replace Noah Splinters,” Darcy explained as they took the elevator up. “I guess he was one of the heads, and they’re all really worried about how this will affect them.”

“Great,” Pepper sighed. “Just what I wanted to deal with today. I just finished taking care of the legal issues that came with firing him.”

“It should be a quick meeting,” Darcy assured her. “They just want you to make a decision on who will be stepping up to take over what he was working on. To be honest, I don’t even know what it was.”

“Neither do I,” Pepper admitted. She was flipping through the files for the other members, and Darcy held the door open for her. She didn’t look up until she heard the door close quickly and the lock engage. There was only one other person in the room, and she most definitely was not a board member.

“If you could be anything, anything at all, what would you be?” Jane asked. She was leaning against the table with a bright smile and a rose. Pepper’s breath caught in her throat.

“I…” she started, but she couldn’t get it out. Jane waited patiently, her smile never faltering. It gave Pepper the courage she needed to finish what had started so many years ago. “I would be the sky, because I could see everything and everyone at once.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” Jane asked, moving towards Pepper. She offered the rose, and Pepper took it numbly.

“You were so young; I didn’t want to ruin your entire life. You had so many dreams, and I had no way of knowing what was going to happen to me,” she admitted.

“You were scared,” Jane corrected.

“Yes,” Pepper agreed in a whisper.

“You helped me along my entire life. You encouraged my dreams when I was a child, you cheered me on as I graduated both high school and college, you got me funding when nobody else would. Why did you never approach me?” Jane asked.

“I never knew I was anything to you,” Pepper told her. “I didn’t know you knew any of that. I just… I wanted you to be happy.”

“I would have been just as happy having you with me,” Jane told her.

“Forgive me?” Pepper asked, barely able to hope that it would even be possible. She’d done so many things wrong. “I won’t hide anymore.”

“I won’t let you,” Jane grinned. “Now that I’ve got you, you’re not going anywhere.”


End file.
